Tough Shit is an onstage conversation about the most challenging questions Portlanders are facing. We’ll bring together four people with very different experiences of and perspectives on the city to talk through some shit with help from the audience and a moderator. The questions will be tough, and this shit will not be resolved in one night; We expect to leave with more questions than answers, plus some renewed hope for the future. And if not, well….

Our guests this time are JT Flowers, special advisor at Albina Vision Trust and a TriMet board member; Kayla Kennett, a poet and communicator for Portland nonprofits; and Sankar Raman, founder of The Immigrant Story.

This event is presented in partnership with the Tomorrow Theater. Tickets are available at tomorrowtheater.org.

About our guests

Sankar Raman is the founder and board president of The Immigrant Story, a nonprofit that chronicles stories of immigrants and refugees in a variety of formats to advance a national dialogue about immigration and to dispel myths about new Americans. Raman immigrated to the US from India to attend graduate school, earning a masters in physics and a PhD in engineering from Purdue University. After a successful career in high tech, he now applies his technical knowledge, managerial skills, and pragmatic mind to leading the nonprofit organization he founded. Raman is an award-winning digital art photographer, storyteller, community leader and a motivational speaker.

JT Flowers is a lifelong Portlander born and bred in the heart of inner-Northeast Portland's historic Albina district. Raised by a single mother and grandmother, neither of whom graduated from college, JT went on to earn his BA in political science with distinction from Yale University. A Truman Scholar, Flowers also made history by becoming the first Black Rhodes Scholar in Oregon's history. He holds master's degrees in US history and music performance from the University of Oxford. JT serves as Senior Advisor at the Albina Vision Trust in addition to representing District 5 on TriMet's Board of Directors, which encompasses large portions of North and Northeast Portland. He also serves as the Board Vice Chair of the Williams & Russell CDC and is the founder of Article V, an organization geared towards helping working communities across Oregon secure an economic and political future built by our hands and to our benefit. 

Kayla Kennett came to Portland from New England ten years ago as an AmeriCorps volunteer, stopping along the way for service terms in Reno and Austin. Over the past decade, she has worked with and around many local community organizations, including Open School, POIC, Lines for Life, Impact NW, North Star Civic Foundation, The Street Trust, and City Club of Portland. She currently serves on the boards of the Hosford-Abernethy Neighborhood District Association, Portland: Neighbors Welcome, and The People’s Nonprofit Accelerator. In her free time, Kayla writes poetry and makes photos and photo-based graphic design, largely inspired by neighborhood walks.

Tickets

Tickets for this event are $15 and are available at tomorrowtheater.org and the Tomorrow Theater box office. Oregon Trail Card holders may purchase up to 2 tickets for $5 each at the box office. A limited number of free tickets are available for those who need them. Email b.waterhouse@oregonhumanities.org to receive a code for free tickets.

About the venue

Mobility access: The Tomorrow Theater is wheelchair-accessible, with capacity for 4 wheelchairs, along with 4 mobile companion seats, and additional seating in the front row that can be used to accommodate additional wheelchair and companion seats. Please notify the theater if you have ADA accessible needs so they can prepare the theater. You can email the theater at tomorrow@pamcut.org.

Parking: The theater is in a busy neighborhood with scarce street parking, though there are usually plenty of spaces available two blocks to the north or south. There is one accessible parking spot across Division on SE 35th Place between Division and SE Grant Court. There is a second accessible parking space two blocks away on SE 36th Ave between Division and SE Clinton St. There are modern curb cuts with truncated domes at the corner of SE 35th Place and SW Division and right in front of the entrance. There is a marked crosswalk across Division at SE 35th There is a ramp going from the entrance to the lobby area outside of the theater. 

Public transit: There are stops for the TriMet FX2 bus within two blocks of the theater. There are stops for Lines 9, 10, 14, and 72 within a ten-minute walking distance.

Food and drink: There is a concession stand in the lobby. Outside food and beverages are not permitted.

Lighting: The venue has appropriate overhead lighting before and after the conversation. During the conversation, lights are dimmed with staged lighting facing the stage. Lights in the lobby/bar remain on during the program. The auditorium has two steep carpeted aisles with red lights lining each edge.

Sound: There will be music at a moderate volume before and after the event.

Read more about the Tomorrow Theater.